1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a fixing device including a fixing belt and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus including the fixing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus may supply a toner to an electrostatic latent image formed at an image receptor, form a visible toner image on the image receptor, transfer the toner image to a recording medium, and fix the transferred toner image to the recording medium. The toner may be manufactured by adding various functional additives including a colorant to a base resin. A fixing process may include a process of applying heat and pressure to the toner.
A belt fixing mechanism including a fixing belt and a pressing roller may be used as a fixing device. The fixing belt may be heated by a heat source such as a lamp. The pressing roller and a nip forming member may be disposed respectively outside and inside the fixing belt and be pressed to each other. Accordingly, a fixing nip may be formed. The fixing belt may be driven according to the rotation of the pressing roller. In the fixing process, the fixing belt and the nip forming member may frictionally contact each other. Wear of the fixing belt and the nip forming member may cause problems such as an increase in the driving load of the fixing device and damage to the nip forming member and/or the fixing belt.